T-Mobile Trots Out Next-Generation Sidekicks
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}T-Mobile USA is updating its Sidekick cell phones, adding a high-end model and the first Motorola-built entry in the line of quirky gadgets with a screen that swivels to reveal a keyboard.
The new luxury model, the Sidekick LX, has a screen with more than twice the resolution of the previous top-of-the-line model, the Sidekick 3.
Criticism of the low screen resolution has dogged the line, which still has found a home among young people who like to communicate by text message.
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The LX will go on sale online Oct. 17 for $300 with a 2-year contract, T-Mobile USA said Wednesday. The cheapest current Sidekick, the iD, costs $50.
Apart from the improved 3-inch screen, the LX is slimmer than previous models, with a more elegant styling.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It's an attempt to broaden the Sidekick user base among older customers, said Leslie Grandy, vice president of product and systems development at Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA.
The LX is also the first Sidekick to allow text messages with attached pictures. Previous models allowed pictures from the built-in cameras to be e-mailed, but Sidekick users prefer text messaging, according to Grandy.
T-Mobile also announced the Sidekick Slide, which breaks away from the Sidekick line in two ways: It's made by Motorola Inc. rather than Sharp Corp., which makes the others; and its screen slides up to reveal the keyboard, rather than swiveling.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Slide is smaller than the other Sidekicks and is more tightly focused on messaging. For instance, it won't play music until you buy a memory card for it. It will cost $200 with a 2-year contract when it goes on sale Nov. 7.
The Sidekick runs software from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Danger Inc. The first Sidekick was launched by T-Mobile in 2002.
On Tuesday, T-Mobile announced that it was introducing a BlackBerry that can make and receive calls over Wi-Fi in addition to the cellular network.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}That substantially reinforces T-Mobile's HotSpotAtHome program, which previously has offered only two low-end phones, neither of them e-mail-oriented devices like the BlackBerry.
With a HotSpotAtHome plan, which costs $20 a month, subscribers can place unlimited calls over Wi-Fi routers at home or on T-Mobile's commercial HotSpot network.
The new BlackBerry Curve costs $250. AT&T launched the same model this spring, but without the ability to place calls over Wi-Fi.